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Lately I have been running into the BSOD every few days or so. I've also have had some random crashing in which the computer would just lock up and would require a system reset. The last blue screen gave me an error saying that a clock interrupt was not received on a secondary processor within the allocated time interval. This mostly occurs while browsing the web with chrome, though it did happen once as I windows was loading. After typing in my log on password the menus became unresponsive and it seemed to lock up. This has not happened while playing any games so far.

The computer itself is about four years old or so and is mainly used for gaming and web browsing. I'm not all too sure what is the cause of my troubles, but I know that I had major stability issues with the sound card I was using a long way back. It has since been removed. There were some minor hangs after I decided to install more system memory but I didn't pay it too much attention until now. I've also been receiving errors in which my gpu stops working from time to time. I think it may be the motherboard but I'm not too sure as I'm not real tech savy. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

We need to collect some more info to get a basic idea about the issue you are experiencing. Please follow the below steps.

Open C:\Windows\Minidump folder. Zip the entire contents of that folder and upload to any free file hosting site like the one listed below. You may need to disable the UAC to access the crash dump files.

I'm going to start running the Minitoolbox after I post this, I just figured I should list the hardware changes before I begin.

The only changes I have made were to the gpu and the ram along with the removal of the sound card. At first I replaced the gpu, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 1gb with the 560 ti. It was around that time that I started experiencing issues with the sound card which was listed as a Razer Barracuda AC-1. I was receiving no sound, and in the event that I did get sound the system would shortly freeze up. After I did some research I found out that the drivers were possibly faulty and I was using the latest drivers. Removing the card and switching to on board sound fixed that issue. That was roughly two years ago and I was not having an blue screens then.

Other than that I did purchase more ram about a year ago. 3GB DDR3 1600MHz to the 8GB that I currently have now. After adding the additional memory I recall the computer hanging for a few seconds, mostly when in chrome with multiple tabs open in the browser. After that the system becomes responsive again and I receive an error message at the bottom of the screen. I can't recall what it said but it happens every few days or so. This did not happen with the older memory sticks.

In addition I should add that on occasion the gpu driver stops working and the monitor goes black. This rarely happens and it usually restores itself rather quickly giving me an error message at the bottom of the screen.

CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT (101)
An expected clock interrupt was not received on a secondary processor in an
MP system within the allocated interval. This indicates that the specified
processor is hung and not processing interrupts.

Your CPU became unresponsive and that is the reason behind the crash. There are several possibilities for a CPU to be hung but in your case my primary suspect is this.

Whether intentional or non intentional, your CPU is overclocked. It is the best way to kill a processor . Please revert clock values and voltage values to their defaults. Enter in to the BIOS and load optimal default values and then double check the CPU is running on stock clock speed.

Report how the system works after the above steps. If you continue to receive any more BSOD, upload the new dumps ( i hope you won't ).

Edit :

Don't try to delete or modify core system files. You may ended up with an unbootable system. Also please understand that, over clocking a CPU is not going to dramatically boost game FPS. If you need better performance, buy a good graphic card.

So I take it there is no such thing as a safe overclock? The cpu actually is overclocked, though I did not do it myself. When I had purchased the PC the manufacturer had a safe overclock special which I opted into. I would be way too afraid to try anything like that myself. If so I won't hesitate to reset back to the default settings. I'll be sure to post again if I run into anymore trouble. Thanks for all the assistance!

In fact most modern Intel processors offer a safe overclock method which is called Turbo boost. It is automatically managed by the CPU and manually changing the values will cause stability issues. More importantly none of the modern games are CPU intensive. Number of cores is the thing which matters in PC games (due to the poor porting from 8 core PS3 ) A basic quad core CPU with stock clock speed will work fine.

Well after a few days of use the computer crashed while accessing internet explorer. No BSOD this time. The computer just became unresponsive forcing me to reset the power again. That was a a day or so ago. Now the computer did BSOD again, however this time it happened as the system was restarting. The screen that tells you that windows is shutting down did not display. The screen was black for a few seconds until I was hit with the BSOD.

I found a post on the seven forums saying it could possibly be a bios problem. Only problem with that is I hear it could potentially damage the computer even more. Could overheating possibly be the culprit? The cpu right now is coming in at 47 degrees celsius through speccy and that is what I have noticed it remains at if left idle.

Error: (07/12/2013 01:37:07 AM) (Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Processor-Power) (User: NT AUTHORITY)
Description: Performance power management features on processor 1 in group 0 are disabled due to a firmware problem. Check with the computer manufacturer for updated firmware.

Current BIOS is from 2009 and there is an update available. Download the update ISO file from the below link and burn it using any ISO burning app like Imgburn.

I actually came upon those drivers earlier, though I didn't bother to use them yet simply as a precaution. Is it possible to boot the iso from a usb drive? Currently I do not have any blank cd-roms to burn too. Extracting the contents of the iso gives me nothing but an empty folder.

On another note when the PC initially shipped it might have had the high performance power setting enabled. I reinstalled the OS not too long ago and had noticed that the computer would ask for permission to launch programs such as steam when it had never done so before. It also never went to sleep when left idle so the settings had to be adjusted from the Windows defaults. This was the first time I actually came across the BSOD; I had uninstalled a beta release version of a soon to be released mmo and tried to restart. Ever since I have reformatted and have been getting them since.

Also, while looking into the BSOD issue I also came across a post mentioning speed step and turning it on. It's currently off so should I turn it on? Resetting the BIOS to the defaults did not enable it though it did enable turbo mode.

Anyways I have switched over to the high performance power setting in the meantime. If you believe I should update the BIOS I will do so as soon as I can though I will be away from the PC for a week starting tomorrow. That said I appreciate all the help! You have my gratitude.

Resolving Bugcheck101 should be done in a step by step manner. Updating BIOS should be the first priority as Windows itself complain about a firmware issue. If that didn't helps, set power management to high performance mode.

Also remove the CPU and reinsert it to fix any possible contact issues between CPU and CPU socket. Removing old paste completely from the top of CPU and the bottom part of the cooling fan is necessary before refitting the fan.

Burning the ISO to a CD and booting from that is the recommended method to update the BIOS. I am not sure whether it can be done via a USB. You can use the free tool RUFUS to create a bootable USB based on any ISO but i recommend to to stick with the manufacturer's suggested method.